Flight Attendants Prepare to Take Action as Cathay Nixes Pay Talks

By Polly Hui

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Cathay Pacific employees from the flight attendants union protest at the Hong Kong International Airport on Jan. 11, 2011.

Cathay Pacific Airways said Wednesday it won’t reopen talks on pay increases with its flight attendants’ union despite threats of industrial action that could disrupt traffic during Hong Kong’s busiest travel season during the Lunar New Year holiday early next month.

The Cathay Pacific Airways Flights Attendants Union, which represents about a third of the airline’s staff, earlier this month urged the territory’s dominant carrier to increase union members’ 2011 salaries by more than the 4.5% put forward by the company.

Becky Kwan, vice-president of the 6,000-strong union, said Wednesday the union hadn’t voiced their demands earlier because it had only recently discovered that the rate of pay increases for its members was much lower than those of Cathay Pacific’s pilots.

The union said after factoring in the company’s guaranteed annual increment, the actual pay rises for flight attendants amount to only about 0%-1.5%. The range of increases for pilots was unclear.

“This is discriminatory treatment. Our pays are already much lower than the pilots’. We deserve to be treated fairly,” Ms. Kwan said.

The union threatened Monday to launch industrial action aimed at causing flight delays. It said it plans to urge its members to carry out measures including more stringent checks on passengers’ carry-on baggage and overweight bags.

Widespread delays will be particularly troublesome for Cathay Pacific during the Lunar New Year holiday, when air traffic usually peaks as Hong Kong and Chinese residents travel. This year, the holiday begins Feb. 3.

Still, Cathay Pacific has refused to bow to the union’s pressure, insisting that there will be no more room for negotiation on the matter.

“We have gone ahead and made those arrangements. So we’re not going to discuss salaries any further,” Cathay Pacific Chief Executive Tony Tyler said Tuesday. “We are disappointed the union has yet again chosen a time just before a big holiday when a lot of Hong Kong people have booked their holidays.”

He said discussions with the union on the pay increases were already completed in November. The airline said the pay package was fair and reasonable.

Ms. Kwan said the union hasn’t yet decided on when it plans to start industrial action but said she hoped the action could start “as soon as possible,” adding the union has already sent guidelines on industrial action to its members.

The stalemate is the latest in a series of pay rows between the airline and its flight attendants union, which sometimes had to be resolved in court.